Southwest Missouri college to honor Beetle Bailey cartoonist

A popular comic strip has its roots in southwest Missouri’s Neosho. Cindy Brown with Crowder College says the creator of Beetle Bailey, Mort Walker, has a connection to Crowder College, which sits on the former Camp Crowder Army base.

Photos courtesy of Beetle Bailey.com

“Mort Walker was actually stationed at Camp Crowder. Camp Swampy was actually named for Camp Crowder. Beetle Bailey evolved from Mort’s time in the Army here,” Brown says.

Walker, who died in January, references the Camp Swampy Army base in the comic strip.

Crowder College will mark the 76th anniversary of Camp Crowder during a free event on Thursday. Brown tells Missourinet affiliate KZRG in Joplin there will be speakers and displays about Walker.

“We found that when we have historical things like this, it’s neat to share them with students in kind of an informal gathering because they get to go around and ask questions and find out thing that they didn’t realize are part of the history of the college,” says Brown.

The event begins at noon at Wright Conference Center at Crowder’s Neosho campus.

Joe Lancello of Missourinet affiliate KZRG in Joplin contributed to this story.